Streaked rattlepod (Crotalaria pallida)

Kuku renteng or streaked rattlepod or chique chique or giant striata (Crotalaria pallida) are flowering plant species in the Fabaceae family, annual perennial shrubs or short-lived, up to 1.5 m high with woody stems, hairy and have longitudinal grooves.

C. pallida has leaves with a trifoliate structure with 2-8.5 cm long stems, 3-13x2–5 cm wide and elliptical. Flowers are yellow or reddish brown and appear on stems 15-40 cm long, each of which consists of 20-30 flowers.

Fruits are pod shaped and measure 3-5x0.6-0.8 cm, each of which has 30-40 seeds that are heart shaped and measuring 3x2 mm, shiny and dark brown. The pods are green and brown when ripe, then dry and fall to carry water.

Kuku renteng grows wildly around rice fields, untreated lands and seasonal wet environments. This plant is favored by many flying insects including great eggfly (Hypolimnas bolina), chocolate grass yellow (Eurema sari), kismo bee (Xylocopa aestuans) and Javanese grasshopper (Valanga nigricornis).

Streaked rattlepod is widely used as ground cover and is processed as green manure. Flowers are eaten as vegetables and seeds baked to be used as a kind of coffee drink in Cambodia. Roots are chewed with areca nut in Vietnam.

C. pallida is also widely applied in traditional medicine to treat urinary problems and reduce fever, the roots are used to treat joint swelling and leaf extract to expel intestinal worms.

Kingdom: Plantae
Phylum: Spermatophyta
Subphylum: Angiospermae
Class: Dicotyledonae
Order: Fabales
Family: Fabaceae
Subfamily: Faboideae
Genus: Crotalaria

Thomas Sutikna lives with Homo floresiensis

BLOG - On October 28, 2004, a paper was published in Nature describing the dwarf hominin we know today as Homo floresiensis that has shocked the world. The report changed the geographical landscape of early humans that previously stated that the Pleistocene Asia was only represented by two species, Homo erectus and Homo sapiens . The report titled "A new small-bodied hominin from the Late Pleistocene of Flores, Indonesia" written by Peter Brown and Mike J. Morwood from the University of New England with Thomas Sutikna, Raden Pandji Soejono, Jatmiko, E. Wahyu Saptomo and Rokus Awe Due from the National Archaeology Research Institute (ARKENAS), Indonesia, presents more diversity in the genus Homo. “Immediately, my fever vanished. I couldn’t sleep well that night. I couldn’t wait for sunrise. In the early morning we went to the site, and when we arrived in the cave, I didn’t say a thing because both my mind and heart couldn’t handle this incredible moment. I just went down...

Southern cone marigold (Tagetes minuta)

Southern cone marigold ( Tagetes minuta ) is a species of plant in the Asteraceae, herb or shrub, upright, up to 2 meters high, cylindrical or square stem, green or red in color, smooth and shiny surface, grows in forests, roadsides and agricultural land. T. minuta has compound leaves 23 cm long, with up to 6 pairs of leaves with 1 at the tip and is green. The strands are elongated, 8 cm long, 1 cm wide, with sharp ends and serrated edges. Flowers in panicles. Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphylum: Angiospermae Class: Magnoliopsida Order: Asterales Family: Asteraceae Subfamily: Asteroideae Tribe: Tageteae Genus: Tagetes Species: Tagetes minuta

Purwaceng (Pimpinella pruatjan)

Purwaceng or purwoceng or antanan gunung or Viagra of Java ( Pimpinella pruatjan or Pimpinella priatjan ) are small termas growing horizontally in Apiaceae, growing in villages on Dieng Plateau, Central Java Province, Indonesia, at 1,500 to 2,000 meters above sea level, the roots have medicinal properties for aphrodisiacs and are usually processed in powder form for a mixture of coffee or milk. P. pruatjan grows flat on the ground but does not propagate, small leaves are reddish green for 1-3 cm in diameter. This plant is only found in Java and grows in high mountain areas. A low population where industrial demand is very high results in increasingly scarce. Another place that is likely to become a purwaceng habitat is the Iyang Mountains and the Tengger Mountains in East Java Province. Efforts to multiply and cultivate have a big problem where these plants have difficulty producing seeds. In vitro propagation research through tissue cultivation has been carried out to overcome ...

Dlium